The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-01-20

believe in Arninius and thou shalt be saved;
or believe in the Synod of bort and thou
shalt be saved; or believe in the Thirty nine
Articles and thou shalt be saved? A man
may be orthodox and go to hell, or orthodox
and 20 to heaven. The man who in the deep
affection of his heart accepts Christ is saved,
and the man who does tot accept Him is
lost.
believe in both the Hei lelberg and West
minister catechislns, and | wish you all did,
but you may believe in nothing they contain
except the one idea that Christ came to save
sinners, and that you are one of them, and
you arc instantly rescued If you can come
in on the grand old ship, would rather have
you get aboard, but il you can find only
piece Of wood as long as the human body, on
a piece as wide as the outspread human
arms. and either of them is a piece of the
cross, come in on that piece. Tens of thou
sands of people are to-day kept out of the
kingdom of God because they cannot be-
lieve everything.
I am talking with a man thoughtful about
his soul, who has lately Travelled through New
England and passed the night at Andover.
He says to me: II cannot believe that in this
life the destiny is irrevocably fixed; l think
there viii be another opportunity of repent
ance after death" I say to him: "My
brother, what has that to do with you! Don't
you realize that the man who waits for an
other chance after death, when he has good
chance before DEATH is a stark fool? Had not
You better take the plank that is thrown to
you now and Lead for shore rather than wait
for plank that may by invisible hands be
thrown to you after you are dead? Do as
you please, but as for myself, with pardon for
cir of
time and eternity offered me now, l instantly
take them rather than run the risk of such
other chance as wise men think they can peel
off or twist out of a Scripture passage that
has for all the Christian centuries been inter
preted another way.
You say: 81 do not like Princeton theology,
or New Haven theology, or Andover theol-
ogyr do not ask you on board either of
the great men-of-war, their portfolios filed
with the great siege guns of ecclesiastical bat
tie. But do ask you TO take the one plank
of the Gospel that you do believe in and
strike out for the pearl strung beach of
Heaven.
Says some other man: 81 would attend to
religion if | was quite sure about the doctrine
of election and free agency, but that mixes
mo all up" Those things used to bother me,
but l have no more peIplexity about them,
for 1 say to my0elf: aft love Christ and
live good, honest useful life, l am elected to
be saved; and if | do not love Christ and live
bad life, will be damned, and ell the theo-
logical seminaries of the universe cannot
make it any different" l foundered long
while in the sea of sin and doubt, and it was
as rough as the Mediterranean on the four
teenth night when they threw the grain over
hut 7
ner, and that plank took. and have been
warming myself by the bright fire on the
shore for three decades
While l am talking to another man about
his soul he tells me: II do not become a
Christian because do not believe there is any
hell at all" Ahl don't you? Do all the peo-
pie, of all beliefs and no belief at all, of good
morals and bad morals go straight to a
happy heaven? Do the holy and the de-
bauched have the same destinations9 At
midnight in hallway the owner of house
and a burglar meet each other, and they both
fire, and both are wounded, but the burglar
died in five minutes and the owner of the
house lives a week after. Will the burglar
be at the gate of Heaven waiting when the
house owner comes in? Will the debauchee
and the ibertine go right in among the fami-
lies of Heaven? l wonder if Herod
is playing on the banks of the
River of Life with the children
he massacred l wonder if Charles Guiteau
and John Wilkes Booth are up there shooting
at mark. l do not now controvert it, al
though I must say that for such miserable
Heaven l have no admiration. But the
Bible does not say: believe in perdition and
be saved" Because all are saved, according
to your theory, that ought not to keep you
from loving and serving Christ Do not re-
fuse to come ashore because all the Others
according to your theory, are going to
get ashore. You may have a differ
ent theory about chemistry, about as
tronomy, about the atmosphere. from
that which others adopt. but you
are not therefore hindered from action. Be-
cause your theory of light is different from
others, do not refuse to open your eyes Be-
/ cause your theory of ali is different you do
not refuse to breathe. Because your theory
about the stellar system is different, you do
not refuse to acknowledge the north star
| Why should the fact that your theological
theories different, hinder you from acting
upon what you know? If you have not a
whole ship fashioned in the theological dry
docks to bring you to wharfage, you have at
least plank. ''Some on broken pieces of
The ship"
"But don't believe in revivalsl" Then go
TO your room, and all alone with your door
locked give your heart to God and join some
| church where the thermometer never gets
higher than so in the shade. "But I do not
| believe in baptismI" Come in without it and
settle that matter afterward. "But there are
so many inconsistent Christiansl" Then come
in and show them by good example how
professors ought to act. "But don't believe
in the Old TESTAMENT Then come in on the
New "But l don't like the Book of Ro-
mansln Then come in on Matthew or Luke.
Refusing to come to Christ, whom you admit
to be the Saviour of the lost because you
cannot admit other things, you are like a man
out there in that Mediterranean tempest and
tossed in the Melita breakers. refusing to
come ashore until he can mend the pieces of
the broken ship. l hear him say: Il won't
so in on any of these planls until l know in
what part of the ship they belong. When
can get the windlass in the right place, and
the sails set, and that keel piece where it be
longs, and that floor timber right, and these
\ ropes untanglcd, will go ashore. l am an
old sailor and know all about ships for
forty years, and as soon as l can get
the vessel ahoat i'll good shape l will
como in" A man drifting by on a
piece of wood overhears him and says
"You viii drown before you get that ship re-
constructed. Better do as l am doing
know nothing about ships, and never saw
one before came on board this, and cannot
swim Il stroke, but l am going ashore on thi,
shivered TIMBER The man in the offine
while trying to mend his ship goes down
The man who trusted to the plank is saved
o, my brother, let your smashed up system
of theology go to the bottom while you CONS
in on splintered spar! 'Some on broker
pieces of the ship
You may get all your difficulties settled a.
Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian, got his gar
dens made. When the war between Austris
and Sardinia broke out he was living a
Caprera, a very rough and uncultured island
home But he went forth with his sword tt
! achieve the liberation of Naples and Sicily
and gave 100000 people free government
Qnder Victor Emmanuel Garibaldi, aftel
being absent two years from Caprera, re
% B 3 III